Euronews

Italian cyclist Luca Paolini has been banned for 18 months by the ICU for a “non-intentional” anti-doping rule violation.

The 39-year-old rider failed a test for cocaine on last year’s Tour de France, and that proved to be the result of accidental consumption of a cocaine metabolite in a medical treatment.

Paolini is an experienced team rider often unheralded who won a Giro d’Italia stage in 2013 and one in the Vuelta in 2006. Most recently he has been providing the legwork for sprinter Alexander Kristoff.